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Our collective hearts are breaking for the poor scalpers:
It's no secret that the RTX 4080 has not been selling particularly well, primarily due to its $1,200 price tag, which most people feel is far too expensive. The situation has even impacted scalpers, with many now having to resell their cards at MSRP or even less in some cases. A few second-hand sellers have tried returning them, which seems to have prompted certain retailers to stop offering refunds for the RTX 4080.
We're used to seeing graphics cards arrive with such high demand that they're quickly bought in bulk by scalpers and sold on auction sites at hugely inflated prices. But the MSRP of the RTX 4080 (and RTX 4090) has led to memes calling Nvidia the scalpers.
Our investigation last month showed that the RTX 4080 isn't selling that well—most retailers have plenty in stock. But it seems plenty of scalpers assumed the Lovelace card would be hard to find, so they decided to purchase units for resale.
That lack of demand and abundance of stock is evident on eBay, where many RTX 4080 cards are selling for around or just over their official store prices, a far cry from the bad times when GPUs were being scalped for three or four times their MSRP.
VideoCardz reports that one scalper is offering six RTX 4080s from various manufacturers for MSRP. The seller writes that the "Market isn't what I thought."
It appears that being unable to sell the RTX 4080 cards has caused several resellers to return them for their money back—where allowed. YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead spotted that Newegg is not letting buyers return the cards for refunds, possibly in response to so many scalpers trying to cut their losses.
The problem is the same in Germany: Scalpers buy the GeForce RTX 4080, put it on eBay - and what does not sell is sent back to the retailers. Unfortunately, the legal situation in Germany definitely prevents retailers from excluding returns.
[...] Things aren't going to improve for RTX 4080 sellers looking to make a quick buck. There are more cards from different AIB partners arriving all the time, and the upcoming launch of AMD's cheaper Radeon RX 7900 series will likely make Nvidia's prices look even less appealing. Given what gamers went through over the last couple of years, it's hard to imagine people shedding any tears for the poor scalpers.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Sunday December 04 2022, @06:00PM (2 children)
That's a very unpopular opinion, but you have a point. Graphics cards are, perhaps, not essential to life.
Consider the scalping that goes on in disaster zones: You buy up some essential good - say, bottled water - from outside the zone. You do what is necessary to get it into the disaster zone. The government then prosecutes you if you try to make a profit. Result? People don't try, because...why should they? Instead, you are left with the government agencies, which are notoriously slow and inefficient. The profit motive can encourage efficiency.
Of course, the situation with graphics cards is a bit different. With bottled water, there is no global shortage - it's a matter of providing incentives to get it from point A to point B. With graphics cards, the scalpers managed to buy up a large portion of the global supply. On the other hand, graphics cards are a luxury item. If people had to wait a year or two for the market to adapt, or had to settle for an older model - whoopie, their lives will go on. Even if crypto had not crashed, the producers would just have ramped production, thus also eliminating the problem.
tl;dr: Scalping is not that big a deal. At worst, it is a short-term annoyance. In many cases, it is actually beneficial - capitalism at work.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 05 2022, @03:51PM (1 child)
In the event that "someone really wanted/needed" a specific GPU. Even, if all retailers were sold out. Someone who said, 'yo, I'll pay 2.5x what a card normally sells for. You'd likely have people that would sell their card. Instead, with scalpers, you have a few people with a significant number, if not the majority of the cards that are available. They then sell all of their cards at a 1.5x to 2x what they paid for them. Thus, the only thing they're doing is giving themselves money. Though, one could say they're also helping the video card vendors. Since warranties are generally useful for original purchasers, only. How sure are we that Nvidia, et al aren't in on the gig?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 08 2022, @02:31PM
In other words, scalp.